Man who set himself on fire in Windsor Twp parking lot identified

A York Haven man has been identified as the one who committed suicide by lighting himself on fire April 20 in a Windsor Township shopping center parking lot.

Alan N. Dircks, 53, doused himself with gasoline and ignited it, according to York County Deputy Coroner Claude Stabley.

Witnesses recalled at the time they saw smoke coming from the passenger side of a minivan parked at the Windsor Commons. Then, a moment later, they saw a man, fully engulfed in flames, emerge from the vehicle's driver-side door.

Dircks was pronounced dead not long after he was taken to York Hospital, according to the coroner's office.

By coroner's office policy, names of those who commit suicide in a public place are not released until the January of the following year.

York Area Regional Police Sgt. Jeff Dunbar said this month that his department had been familiar with Dircks; specifically, that its detectives had received anecdotal information about incidents in which Dircks may have been involved.

More recently, York Area had charged Dircks with indecent exposure on Jan. 15, 2012. Dircks was placed in York County Prison the same day and posted $50,000 bail on Jan. 19, 2012.

On March 1, Dircks waived his preliminary hearing before District Judge John H. Fishel, and his case was transferred to York County Court of Common Pleas.

He was arraigned there on April 13, and his next court date was a trial conference on May 22.

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A court records check on Dircks revealed that he had pleaded guilty to several charges, including luring a child into a motor vehicle and corruption of minors, from a 1998 case. He also pleaded guilty to indecent exposure in a 1999 case.